schlange - Posted - 07/07/2015:  14:21:02

Key of A – aEAC#E

A lot of the tunes in Dan's collections come from the playing of his band, The Boiled Buzzards. They played as a band for about 10 years and were called “The most influencial band since Highwoods” by Steve Davis in his magazine, The Devil's Box. What an honor! They underwent several usual style band member and instrument changes over those years and still get together in their current configuration when they get a chance. Guitar player Annie and Dan played just last week and hope to do more this summer.

While they originally had fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar and bass, the original fiddler left the band before they recorded their first album, Salt and Grease so Dan's co-lead on that was harmonica player Dave Rice. Dave was WONDERFUL in that role and played a killer version of this tune on that album and Dan played banjo on that of course. As Dan recalls, the first time he heard this was from both The Arm and Hammer Stringband (on Visits) and on the Hot Mud Family’s Live as We Know It recording which he got around the same time. All three of these will give you a great feel for this tune and we recommend getting all of them if you can.

Dan included it in his book Old Time Favorites for Clawhammer Banjo (Melbay 30224 and its fiddle companion 30225). In the Clawhammer version you will find 2 lines of tab (basic and advanced) as well as a standard notation line. The fiddle version has 2 lines of standard notation (basic and advanced) as well as a line of mandolin/fiddle tablature for those not yet reading the dots.

Feel free to post any questions you have on it, remark on sections you would like clarified or things you might like added. Yes even the things you don’t like are fair game. It grows the tune and the community when you know what you like and don’t like as you build your own style.

It would be great to hear some of your versions so far so post them here for all to hear!

You can purchase the video lesson (for unlimited streaming and download) here on the Banjo Hangout for $6.

Get it here >

SO, shall we continue these or not? And if so, please let Dan know what tunes you would like to have next. Dan still has more than a few to do from Old Time Favorites AND Old Time Festival Tunes, but an “off list” tune now and then is also possible. Email Dan at Clawdan@clawdan.com